Wix review 2026: plans, true cost and the catch with leaving

What it is and who it’s for

Wix is a drag-and-drop hosted website builder. You start from a template or let Wix’s AI draft a site, then move things around on the page in a visual editor. Wix runs the hosting, and that part is not optional: Wix says your site must run on Wix’s servers.

It is one of the most-used site platforms in the world. W3Techs counts Wix on 4.2% of all websites, behind only WordPress and Shopify. Wix markets “multi-cloud hosting” and 99.99% uptime.

Three things set Wix apart from most rivals: a free plan, a large app market, and new AI builders that can draft a whole site from a prompt.

Wix fits best when:

• You’re a beginner who wants to try a builder for free before paying.
• You run a small business and want bookings, a store and marketing in one dashboard.
• You’d like AI to draft a site that you then edit by hand.

It is a poor fit if you may want to move the site to another host later, or if you plan to build up a large blog you might migrate. We cover why below.

Plans and what they really cost

Wix has a free plan, but it shows Wix ads on your site and uses a Wix-branded web address instead of your own domain. It can’t take online payments.

Paid plans have no free trial. Instead, Wix offers a 14-day money-back guarantee. Here are the US prices from Wix’s plans page, all billed yearly and paid in full when you buy.

An Enterprise plan is also available on a custom quote.

What each plan adds, according to Wix:

• Light: a free domain for one year and a light marketing suite.
• Core: online payments, basic eCommerce, scheduling and a basic marketing suite.
• Business: standard eCommerce, scheduling and a standard marketing suite.
• Business Elite: advanced eCommerce, an advanced marketing suite and Wix’s advanced developer platform.

The plan to watch is Light. It looks like the budget pick at $17 a month billed yearly, but it can’t accept online payments. If you want to sell anything or take deposits, Core at $29 a month billed yearly is the real starting point.

Payments run through Wix Payments, and Wix says it supports “more than 80 payment options worldwide.” We couldn’t confirm Wix’s US card processing rate, or whether Wix adds its own transaction fee, from the pages we checked. Look at the rate on your checkout screen before you commit.

A 3-year cost example

Say you run a small business. You want to take online payments and use one professional email inbox. That means Core, billed yearly. Here is what three years looks like.

*Wix doesn’t publish its domain renewal price on the pages we checked. As a stand-in we used Namecheap’s published .com renewal of $18.48 a year. For email, Wix doesn’t list a bundled offer, so we used Google’s own price for Workspace Business Starter: $7.00 per user a month on an annual plan.

If you don’t need payments, Light cuts the plan cost to $612 over three years, and the same setup totals $900.96.

Two more costs can push the total up:

• Apps. Many apps in the Wix App Market carry their own monthly fees. Add them before you compare Wix with anything else.
• Paying upfront. Yearly plans are paid in full when you buy, so Core is $348 at once, not $29 a month.

Our website cost calculator lets you plug in your own apps, email seats and sales.

What you can build

Design and templates

Wix’s plans page advertises thousands of templates. The editor is drag-and-drop, so you can place things freely on the page instead of filling fixed slots. That freedom suits beginners, but it also means keeping layouts consistent across pages is up to you.

Business Elite includes what Wix calls an “advanced developer platform.” Wix’s pages don’t spell out which custom code options come with each lower plan, so check before you buy if you need to add your own scripts.

Blog and CMS

Wix has a built-in blog (Wix Blog) and CMS collections. A CMS, or content management system, is the part that stores repeatable content such as team members, listings or recipes so you can show it on many pages.

Here’s the catch: CMS collection content can be exported, but Wix blog posts cannot. If your blog will become a big part of your business, that matters a lot. More on this in the next section.

Store and bookings

Selling starts on Core. Wix sorts its store tools into three tiers: basic eCommerce on Core, standard on Business and advanced on Business Elite. Core and Business both list scheduling, which suits salons, coaches and other appointment businesses.

If selling is the main job of your site, read Wix vs Shopify before you decide.

SEO

Wix includes built-in SEO tools for helping search engines find and understand your pages. Wix’s plans page doesn’t detail them, so check that you can edit page titles, descriptions and redirects on your plan.

AI features

• Wix Harmony launched on January 21, 2026. Wix calls it its flagship AI website builder. It mixes vibe coding (describing what you want in plain words and letting AI build it) with Wix’s visual editor. It rolled out in English first.
• Aria is the AI agent inside Harmony. Wix says it understands plain-language requests and the full context of your site.
• AI website builder. The plans page promotes creating a site “from a single prompt.”
• Wixel is an AI design platform for creating content, named in the Harmony announcement.

What happens when you leave

Wix scores 3/10 on our exit score, which rates how much of a site you can take with you. The skill needed to leave is high, because almost everything has to be rebuilt.

No site export

Wix’s help article on exporting or embedding your site elsewhere is clear. Your site must run on Wix’s servers, and Wix’s “SaaS architecture does not support external hosting since it uses Wix’s proprietary technology.” You can’t download your site as HTML, CSS or JavaScript files. Embedding a Wix site somewhere else is possible but not supported.

Blog posts stay behind

Wix’s help center says: “Currently, it is not possible to export blog posts to other platforms.” It’s listed as an open feature request that is collecting votes. Until that changes, moving a blog means copying posts by hand or paying someone to do it.

What you can take

• Products: export to CSV “along with all their data,” up to 5,000 rows per CSV file. Digital products can’t be exported.
• CMS collections: each collection can be exported.
• Orders and contacts: we couldn’t confirm the export options from an official Wix article, so check your dashboard before you plan a move.

Your domain

Our exit score gives Wix full marks for the domain, but we didn’t confirm Wix’s own steps for transferring a domain out from an official article. The safest setup is simple: register your domain at an outside domain registrar and connect it to Wix, which Wix supports. You give up the free first year, but your domain never sits inside the platform you might leave. Porkbun, for example, lists .com registration and renewal at $11.08.

If you’re planning a move, our guide to leaving your website builder walks through the steps, including how to keep your search traffic with redirects.

Gotchas

• Your site can’t leave Wix. It can’t be exported or hosted elsewhere (Wix help center, “Exporting or Embedding Your Wix Site Elsewhere”).
• Blog posts can’t be exported. It’s an open feature request (Wix help center, Wix Blog request article).
• Product export has limits. 5,000 rows per CSV file, and no digital products (Wix help center, “Wix Stores: Exporting Your Product List”).
• Monthly prices are hidden until checkout. Listed prices are yearly and paid in full upfront (plans page).
• Light can’t take payments. You need Core or higher to accept online payments (Wix’s premium plans guide).
• The free plan shows Wix ads and uses a Wix-branded address, not your own domain (Wix’s premium plans guide).
• No free trial on paid plans. You get a 14-day money-back guarantee instead (plans page).
• Some costs aren’t published. The domain renewal price and US card processing rate weren’t on the pages we checked.

Who should pick it, who should not

Pick Wix if

• You want to start free and only pay once the site is ready.
• You want bookings, a store and email marketing in one place without stitching tools together.
• You like dragging things exactly where you want them on the page.
• You want an AI builder like Harmony to draft the site and are happy to stay on Wix long term.

Skip it if

• You might want to move to another host later. You’d be rebuilding from scratch.
• Your blog is the heart of your business and you may need to move it someday.
• You want to see month-to-month prices before you sign up.
• You sell digital products and want a clean product export.

Alternatives worth a look

• Squarespace vs Wix: no free plan, but known for polished templates, and it scores 5/10 for leaving.
• Wix vs WordPress: more upkeep, but you own every file and it scores 10/10 for leaving.
• Wix vs Shopify: the stronger choice when the store is the business.
• Wix vs Webflow: more design control, and paid workspaces can export static code (6/10).

Some links on this page are affiliate links: if you buy, we may earn a commission at no cost to you. It never changes our verdicts or rankings. Affiliate disclosure.